P J THOMAS IS CVC

Sushma Swaraj dissented?

P J THOMAS IS  NEW CVC


By R Rajagopalan

P J Thomas is the new Central Vigilance Commissioner.
Presently he is Secretary department of Telecommunicaton
a Kerala cadre 1973 batch IAS officer.He will have full five years
three months tenure period.

P J Thomas name was approved yesterday at 7 pm at a
meeting of the selection committee held at 7 Race Course Road
with Dr Manmohan Singh in chair, while P Chidambaram and
Sushma Swaraj the Opposition leader were present.
Three names were considered P J Thomas 1973 Kerala
Bijoy Chatterjee 1973 West Bengal and Shantanu Counsl.
1974 Karnataka

Sushma Swaraj Leader of Opposition opposed the name of P J Thomas
as he is presently Secretary Telecom, and 2G spectrum issue is being
investigated not only by Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament
but also by Central Bureau of Investigations. Apart from that P J Thomas
had to face a vigilance and CBI inquiry on Palm Oil import when
was Food Secretary in Kerala when Karunakaran Congress Government.

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is believed to have over-ruled Sushma Swaraj
objections. Authoratative sources told this correspondent, that Union
Law Ministry and Attorney General were consulted on PJ Thomas. Both legal officers had given
clear ruling that PJ Thomas was not directly in the import of palm oil issue.

Sushma Swaraj also believed to have made remarks at the meeting that
2G scam is being investigated and P J Thomas had also seen lots of CVC reports
on the 2G scam, his appointment at the highest position might derail the
justice process. Her arguement was over ruled by the Committee.

Hectic lobbying took place for Bijoy Chatterjee who is the brother of
Deepak Chatterjee Insiders also commented that  Pranab Mukherjee
supported with PM while Shantanu Cousul was supported by
Sushma Swaraj.

Minister Prithviraj Chavan went to Sushma Swaraj two times,
with two sets of three names. In total six names were under consideration
In the total numbers of six the names in the order of priority was 


T Nand Kumar 1972 Jharkhand, 
Ashok Chawla 1973 Gujarat
Bijoy Chatterjee 1973 West Bengal,
------
P J Thomas 1973 Kerala,
Shantanu Counsul 1974 Karnataka 
S Krishnan 1975 Uttaranchal 


ends